Online content related to the Adams family is available at other institutions, including The John Adams Library at the Boston Public Library and Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, Mass.

Notable Quotes

During the whole course of my political life I have held myself bound in allegiance to no party, but to my Country, my whole Country, and nothing but my Country—

John Quincy Adams to Russell Freeman, 12 Oct. 1835

I cherish the Virtue of Humility, in proportion to the scarcity of it in the world—

Diary of John Quincy Adams, 31 May 1812

I wish most sincerely there was not a Slave in the province. It allways appeard a most iniquitious Scheme to me—fight ourselfs for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have.

Abigail Adams to John Adams, 12 Sept. 1774

There is no necessary connection between knowledge and virtue.

John Adams to John Taylor, 5 March 1815

I have the misfortune of being the descendant of two great men and must do something to avoid the charge of utter degeneracy.

Diary of Charles Francis Adams, 3 Oct. 1835

I long to hear that you have declared an independancy—and by the way in the new Code of Laws . . . I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands.

Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 March 1776

We have only the Name of Masters, and rather than give up this, which would compleatly subject Us to the Despotism of the Peticoat, I hope General Washington, and all our brave Heroes would fight.

John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 April 1776

My Wife writing notes for an evening party which she is to give—A tax paid to Society for the favour of being bored at other people’s houses.

Diary of Charles Francis Adams, 26 Oct. 1835

My Country has in its Wisdom contrived for me, the most insignificant Office that ever the Invention of Man contrived or his Imagination conceived: and as I can do neither good nor Evil, I must be born away by Others and meet the common Fate.

John Adams on the office of Vice President, 19 Dec. 1793

There are two political principles that form the basis of the system of policy best suited to the interests and the duties of this country. One in relation to its internal concerns, Union, the other in respect to its intercourse with foreign nations, Independence. These principles are the keys to my political creed.

John Quincy Adams to Skelton Jones, 17 April 1809

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

John Adams, 3 Dec. 1770

They rest in peace under the Church at Quincy, and here am I, their only surviving son plodding my weary way through days of natural tribulation. . . .I walked out of the church feeling as if I had bathed my face in the light of her blessed memory, and could go on with more courage to accomplish the more or less that remains of my own course.

Diary of Charles Francis Adams, 28 Dec. 1862

The longer I live and the more I see of public Men, the more I wish to be a private one. Modesty is a Virtue, that can never thrive, in public.

John Adams to James Warren, 2 Dec. 1778

Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the Heart, then those qualities which would otherways lay dormant, wake into Life, and form the Character of the Hero and the Statesman.

Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 19 Jan. 1780

It has ever been my hobby-horse to see rising in America an empire of liberty, and a prospect of two or three hundred millions of freemen, without one noble or one king among them.

John Adams to Count Sarsfield, 3 Feb. 1786

We...went from there to the house where we were entertained with a very different style of oratory which I denominate the hum-drum as it produced on my ear some thing like the effect of the Cotton spinning wheel which is not dull enough to set you to sleep but sufficiently monotonous to weary your spirits—

Diary of Louisa Catherine Adams, 11 Feb. 1819

The fundamental Article of my political Creed is, that Despotism, or unlimited Sovereignty, or absolute Power is the same in a Majority of a popular Assembly, an Aristocratical Counsel, an Oligarchical Junto and a single Emperor.

John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 13 Nov. 1815

An American mission abroad is a perpetual lesson of humility, not to say of humiliation. It fixes a man in the condition of a parasite, and then tells him to maintain his self-respect and the consideration of his country.